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Obesity not associated with development of ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease
High BMI does not independently increase the risk for developing ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease, according to recent results.
Researchers evaluated 177 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 75 with Crohn’s disease (CD) developed after enrollment in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study, along with four matched controls per patient (n=708 controls for UC; n=300 for CD). All participants had height, weight, physical activity and energy intake assessed upon inclusion in the main EPIC cohort.
“The increasing incidence of CD and UC in developing countries that adopt a more ‘Westernized’ lifestyle would suggest that environment and lifestyles play a role in IBD etiology,” researcher Simon S.M. Chan, PhD, MB BChir, clinical lecturer in gastroenterology at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, told Healio.com. “One change in developing countries that adopt a more Westernized diet is the increase in obesity. Our idea for investigating BMI stemmed from here.”
No significant differences were observed between patients and controls in mean BMI, total energy intake or physical activity. Investigators noted no significant associations between BMI above normal and the development of either UC (OR trend across BMI categories=0.89, 0.70-1.14) or CD (OR=0.96, 0.66-1.39). Sensitivity analysis in which IBD developed within 18 months of or 5 years after enrollment yielded similar results (OR trend across BMI categories=0.98, 0.72-1.36 for UC; OR=0.83, 0.49-1.43 for CD) (95% CI for all).
No associations were observed between IBD development and physical activity (P=.79 for trend for UC; P=.42 for trend for CD) or energy intake (P=.18 for trend for UC; P=.11 for trend CD).
“Although other studies need to confirm our findings, our study suggests that obesity as defined by BMI is not associated with the development of UC or CD,” Chan said. “While our results need to be confirmed, perhaps others should also be looking at other measures of obesity, such as waist-hip ratios and mesenteric fat.”